II Peter 1:5-7 “5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”
TAKE IT DAILY
How many of us take vitamin supplements? I take a couple every day because I have been told they help me physically. There is even a store where all they sell is vitamins and supplements. So there must be a market for them to the public.
Peter is telling the believers to “supplement” their faith with 7 things: 1) virtue 2) knowledge 3) self-control 4) steadfastness 5) godliness 6) brotherly affection and 7) love. That’s a lot of supplement. Did he mean faith was NOT enough? No, but these “supplements” will keep them from being “ineffective or unfruitful” as they grow in Christ.
TEACHING MOMENT
What vitamins and supplements are you feeding your children? Are you so focused on the physical that you forget these spiritual ones? Don’t you think your children need to learn virture? How about knowledge and self-control? We can go down the whole list Peter has here and agree we want our children to have all of these.
So how do they get them? They don’t come in a bottle. They come directly from you, their parents. In fact many of these will come just by watching you. Are you virtuous and wise? Do you exhibit self-control and steadfastness? Are you godly in your interactions with others? Do you show brotherly affection and love to all? See what I mean? You are both the administrator and donor of these “supplements” to your children.
Perhaps your “bottles” are getting low. Is it time to get a refill? Why not right now bow your head and ask the Lord to fill you with these “supplements”? Ask the Lord to give you an abundance of each so they will spill over onto your children and to all you meet today?
A Moment In Time 